What to make of the tragedy?

Thursday

Dec 20, 2012 at 1:42 PM

What can we make of the unspeakable tragedy that took place last week in Newtown, Conn.?To the overly political among us, it was an opportune chance to make horribly crass, misplaced and mis-timed arguments for or against gun control.

Michael GormanEditorial Page Editor

What can we make of the unspeakable tragedy that took place last week in Newtown, Conn.?To the overly political among us, it was an opportune chance to make horribly crass, misplaced and mis-timed arguments for or against gun control.Even as news of the horrible event was still coming out, people took to Facebook and other social media to call for gun control.In Washington, D.C., it took just hours to convene a protest at the White House, with participants seeking more gun control.At the same time, activists and malcontents on the other side started crowing about the need for more armed people in places such as schools — people who could have stopped the attacker before he so thoroughly accomplished his grisly goal.It was all pretty tasteless.I imagined people gathered in dimly lit rooms, huddled around radios or televisions, just hoping for the next massacre so they could jump on it and advance whichever cause they prefer.There was almost a gleeful, gloating tone in some of the anti-gun folks' Facebook posts, as though this event just further proved what they knew was right all along.Perhaps.I would have preferred that folks on both sides of the debate simply express sadness that the event had occurred rather than immediately moving to exploit it.There's no getting around some of it.The gunman used a rifle, a type that some have started calling an assault weapon. That term is filled with divisive connotations, and it was purposefully applied to a loosely defined group of guns whose main defining characteristic seems to be that they are scary-looking.Dictionary.com defines assault rifle like this:1. a military rifle capable of both automatic and semiautomatic fire, utilizing an intermediate-power cartridge. 2. a nonmilitary weapon modeled on the military assault rifle, usually modified to allow only semiautomatic fire.So there you have it.I don't know what an “assault rifle” is as opposed to other kinds of rifles, so I'll leave that distinction to the Facebook experts.Getting too focused on the kind of weapon that was used last week, though, misses the point to a large degree.Assault rifles sound scary to a lot of Americans, so I guess they'll be an easy target for Congress.Meanwhile, the gun violence that pervades our culture will continue.Even if you magically removed every assault rifle, however you define such a thing, from civilian possession, we would be left with the weapons used by most criminals to steal, threaten, rape and kill.How, then, do we make it less likely that people in the future will commit similar crimes?I don't know.And I'll save you a bit of wondering: Congress doesn't know either. The people who already thought guns cause murder will continue to think that, and they will continue to try to make fewer of them legal.To me, this is roughly akin to Congress hoping to increase the number of writers by requiring that manufacturers make more pencils.Pencils don't cause writing, and guns don't cause murder.And yet ... guns certainly make murder easier. In cases like this one, they can make a murderer much more efficient.The debate over gun control has a sensible place in our public-policy forum. We should talk about how to make tragedy less likely while recognizing and honoring the Second Amendment rights we all enjoy — even those of us who choose not to exercise them.Here is my suggestion: Give the nation a chance to grieve the victims of this latest rampage. Then, start a calm, measured debate over what can and should be done.In the emotional grips of tragedy, good, rational debate is unlikely, probably even impossible. One might think back to the national decisions made in the emotional aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. We are still fighting two wars due to those hasty, some even might say senseless, decisions.Let's not do it again.

Editorial Page Editor Michael Gorman can be reached at 448-7612 or by e-mail at mike.gorman@dailycomet.com.

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